Sealing gasket



Jan. 25, 1955 K, K, KESUNG 2,700,197

SEALING GASKET Filed oct. 423, 1952 nited States Patent O SEALING GASKET Keith K. Kesling, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Application ctober 23, 1952, Serial No. 316,429

1 Claim. (Cl. 20--69) This invention relates to refrigerator cabinets and particularly to a door structure for such cabinets.

The advent of plastic materials for molding Various objects has led to the formation of the inner wall member of refrigerator cabinet doors from such materials. The use of molded plastic sheet or pan-like inner door walls or members in the construction of a refrigerator cabinet door has not been entirely satisfactory and has presented numerous problems to manufacturers of refrigerator cabinets. For example, a molded plastic inn-er door pan or member, while having the desirable characteristic of being lighter in weight, has a greater coecient of expansion and contraction under temperature changes than sheet meal. Thus where an inner molded plastic sheet or pan has been securely mounted by screws, metal clips or the like to a rigid outer metal pan member of a refrigerator cabinet door structure the temperature changes to which the sheet or pan has been subjected creates a substantial expansion and/or contraction thereof and causes the pan to warp or `buckle and to crack in the vicinity of its mounting points. This not only occurs during use of the refrigerator but also occurs While the refrigerator cabinet is being shipped and subjected to substantial temperature changes.

An object of my invention is to provide an improved refrigerator cabinet door construction of light weight, of low manufacturing cost and which can be quickly and readily assembled.

Another object of my invention is to lock an inner wall forming member of a refrigerator cabinet door to the outer substantially rigid metal wall forming member or pan thereof by a gasket which forms the sole means of securing these members to one another to thereby eliminate the use of screws, bolts or attaching clips.

A further object of my invention is to secure an inner molded plastic wall forming member of a refrigerator cabinet door t-o the outer metal pan member thereof in such a manner as to permit the plastic member to freely expand and/or contract and bulge to prevent its cracking and/or damaging its means for attaching and securin-g the same to the outer door pan or wall member.

A still further object of my invention is to secure an inner wall forming member of a door of a refrigerator cabinet to an outer rigid metal door pan member by porn tions of a resilient gasket provided with an integral floating flexible wing-like extension having an enlarged edge forcibly inserted into a groove in the gasket for clamping portions of the body of the gasket into tight abutting relation with the peripheral edges of the door members and which extension when so inserted forms a hollow -bead or seal for engaging a wall of the cabinet.

A more specific object of my invention, in securing the inner and outer wall members of a rectangularly vshaped refrigerator cabinet door together without the use of additional fastening means, is to provide in the hollow bead sealing portion of the securing gasket a soft resilient insert at the corners of the door to permit the hollow bead sealing portion of the gasket to be extended or curved around the door corners without buckling and collapsing the same.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein a preferred form of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

Figure l is a front view of a refrigerator cabinet having a door constructed in accordance with my invention hingedly mounted thereon;

2,700,197 Patented Jan. 25, 1955 ICC Figure 2 is an enlarged horizontal fragmentary s ectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1 showing the cabinet door in sealing engagement with the refrigerator cabinet front wall;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary sectional view of the outer metal door pan having the door gasket mounted thereon in the first step of assembling the door;

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3 showing the inner wall door member assembled to the door with a wing extension on the door gasket inserted in a groove in the gasket; and

Figure 5 is a fragmentary view taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 2 showing the gasket extending continuously around a corner of the door and having a portion of the hollow sealing bead thereof in section to illustrate a soft resilient insert placed therein.

-Referring to the drawings, for illustrating my invention, I have shown in Figure l thereof a refrigerator cabinet of the household type generally represented by the reference character 10. Cabinet 10 includes metal exterior panels or Walls 11 and an interior metal liner 12 (see Figure 2) forming walls of a food storage compartment 13 within the cabinet. Any suitable or desirable insulating material 14 is disposed between liner 12 and the outer walls 11 of the cabinet 10. An insulating breaker strip 15 spaces the liner 12 from the outer cabinet walls 11 and rigidly connects the liner 12 to the walls 11. An evaporator of a closed refrigerating system (not shown) is located in food compartment 13 for cooling and causing circulation of air therein. The refrigerant translating device or m-otor-compressor-condenser unit of the refrigerating system associated with cabinet 10 may be located in a machine compartment below the food compartment 13 and which machine compartment has its front normally closed by a removable panel or the like 16. An insulated frameless door structure, generally represented by the reference character 20, is hingedly mounted upon cabinet 10 to normally close an opening in the front wall thereof which provides access to the interior of food storage compartment 13 when the door is opened. Door 20 carries a gasket element which has a portion thereof sealingly engaging the front wall of cabinet 10 about the access opening of compartment 13 and my invention is particularly directed to a door structure employing a gasket element of a specific cross sectional contour.

In the present disclosure the refrigerator cabinet door 20 comprises a sheet metal wall forming member or pan 21, shaped to provide the outer face and peripheral sides of the door, a molded plastic sheet-like wall forming member 22, shaped to provide the inner face of the d-oor, and suitable insulating material 23 disposed in the chamber between the inner and outer wall forming members (see Figure 2). Outer metal pan member 21 is anged inwardly from the sides thereof as at 24. It will be noted that the peripheral edges or edge portions 26 of inner door pan member 22 are spaced from the edge of flange 24 on the outer door pan member 21. A resilient rubber-like gasket element, disposed in the space between the edges of pan members 21 and 22, includes a relatively thick main body portion 27 cut out at its sides, as at 28 and 29, to provide notches extending continuously there'- along having side walls or lips which receive and overlap the peripheral edges 26 of member 22 and the edge of ange 24 on member 21 respectively. This gasket element is preferably produced by extruding molten rubber through a suitably shaped forming die and cutting the same into strips of the desired length to extend entirely around a rectangular door. A substantially keyholeshaped groove 31 in main body portion 27 of the gasket element, between the cut-out notches 2S and'29 thereof, opens in a direction toward the inner face of door 20 and is for a purpose t-o be presently described. Specifically the groove 31 as herein shown is of arrowhead shape in cross sectional contour. The lip or one portion of the gasket element which overlaps the exterior part of ilange 24 adjacent its edge is provided with an integral flexible extension in the form of a wing or the 'like 33. Wing 33 has an enlarged free edge 34, of arrowhead shape in cross sectional con-tour, which is forcibly inserted into the groove 31 to resiliently clamp at least the outer two opposed;` overlapping portions or lips of body 27 of the gasket element into tight abutting engagement with the edge portions of door wall members 21 and 22. This rmly clamps the edge porti-on 26- of member 22 to the flange portion 24 of member 21 to there-by form the sole means of securing member 22 to metal member 2i. Thus the gasket elements acts to completely break any connection of the door wall member 22 with the door wall member 21 for preventing transmission of heat between these door mem-bers and also elimina-tes the use of screws, metal clips and/or clamping brackets for connecting these wall members together. ln addition to the function of the gasket forming the sole means for securing inner door member 22 to the outer metal door member 2i, by forcibly inserting the enlarged free edge 34 of wing 33 into groove 31, that part of wing 33 intermediate its enlarged locked edge 34 and the one lip of the main body 27 of' the gasket element overlapping the flange 24 on outer door wall member 2l forms a hol-low bead overlying the flange 24 for sealingly engaging the front wall 11 of cabinet to close and seal the access opening of food storage compartment i3. lt is to be noted that the hollow bead, formed by wing 33, is slightly compressed by engagement thereof with the front wall of cabinet 10 (see Figure 2) to thereby provide a relatively wide sealing contact with the cabinet, as compared to its natural or original cross sectional contour as shown in Figure 4 of the drawings. The gasket element thus has three purposes in the presen-t door construction which are that of forming the sole means for securing the inner door member 22 to the outer door member 21, of substantially hermetically `sealing the insulation 23 in the chamber between the door members and that of providing the hollow bead for sealingly engaging the front wall of cabinet 10. Since the gasket element extends entirely around the rectangular door it has, in addition to these purposes, due to its particular cross sectional contour, advantages over known prior gasket seal s-tructures which will hereinafter become apparent.

Referring now to Figure 3 of the drawings I show the gasket with the lips of the notched out part 29 assembled to the metal outer door pan member 21 and overlapping the llange 24 thereon, The integral wing 33 and its enlarged edge 34, in this rst step of assembling the gasket element, lies in an open-like floating position relative to the main `body portion 27 thereof. The next step in the assembly of door 20 is to place the insulating material 23 in the outer door pan member 21 and to thereafter open the lips, or at least the outer one thereof, adjacent the notched out part 28 of main lbody portion 27 of the gasket element and to insert the peripheral edges 26 of inner door member 22 into the notch 28. These latter assembling steps are believed to be self-explanatory and are not illustrated in the drawings. The nal assembly step consists in forcing the enlarged edge 34 of Wing 33, on the gasket element, into groove 31 provided in its main body 27 to lock this free edge 34 in the groove 31 as shown in Figure 4 of the drawings. Since the gasket element preferably extends continuously around corners of door 20 the provision of the open or lloating wing 33, prior to having its edge 34 locked in groove 31 for the final assembling step, presents the advantage of permitting a short piece of resilient compressible sponge or foam rubber 36 (see Figure 5) to be inserted beneath the wing 33 at' the corners of the door. When the edge 34 of wing 33. on the gasket element is bent around the corners of door 20' and tucked into the gro-ove 31 the hollow sealing bead, formed by Wing 33, would ordinarily be stretched and would buckle and collapse or in other words would tend to become flattened in a direction toward the flange A24. Such a cnn/edv flattened portion of the hollow sealing 'bead at corners of door 20 would not then engage the cabinet front wall as the remainder or straight portions of the bead do and therefore the food storage compartment 13 in ca'binet 10 could not be properly sealed.

However, by placing the piece of sponge or foam rubber 36 beneath wing 33, prior to inserting or tucking its edge 34 into groove 31, aroundy the corners of door 20 the sealing bead is prevented from buckling and becoming flattened out. Thus the use of the sponge or foam rubber inserts 36 provides a sealing bead on the gasket element of `substantially the same distance of projection outwardly of the inner face of the door uniformly entirely around door 20. A gasket element of the type herein disclosed and having the normally open floating wing or flap extension 33 has an additional advantage over the purpose of forcing its enlarged edge 34 into groove 31 to resiliently tighten the overlapping portions of its main body 27 against the door panels or members.

Since the main body portion 27 of the gasket element in the present disclosure hermetically seals the insulating material 23 within the chamber between the door panels or members 2li and 22 it is desired to attach the door hardware, such as its latch and hinges, to the outer surface of metal door pan 21 so as not to pierce through the same and break the hermetic seal of the insulation. The manner of .so attaching such latches and/-or hinges to the exterior surface of a metal door pan member without making holes therethrough is well-known to those skilled in the art and requires no explanation herein.

it should .be apparent from the foregoing that I have provided an improved door structure for a refrigerator cabinet which is simple in construction, of low manufacturing cost, neat in appearance and which eliminates the use of screws, metal clips or brackets around the door for locking the inner door wall member to the metal outer door pan member. In my improved door structure the molded plastic inner pan or wall member is free to expand and/or contract at will without becoming cracked, without materially effecting its connection to the outer metal door wall or pan member and without impairing the hermetic seal of the insulation between the door panels. The gasket element used in the door construction disclosed fulfills several purposes while at the same time also provides other advantages as hereinbef-ore described.

While the form of embodiment of the invention as herein disclosed constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, as may come within the scope of the claim which follows.

What is claimed is as follows:

A rubber-like gasket of the type having a main body secured to a member adapted to close an opening in a wall structure and provided with an integral wing having its free edge inserted into a groove formed in the gasket body to lock the same thereto and provide a hollow bead for sealingly engaging said wall structure about the opening therein; said gasket extending continuously around the corners of said member, a plurality of separate independent inserts formed of the same basic material as said gasket each completely filling the hollow cross section of the bead of said gasket at corners only of said member f-or preventing the bead from buckling and collapsing at said corners, said inserts being soft, resilient and readily compressible to provide a sealing engagement of the gasket bead at the corners of said member substantially uniform with that obtained by the hollow gasket bead along straight runs of said gasket on said member, and said separate inserts being placed one at a time in succession beneath said gasket wing during the act of inserting the free edge thereof into the groove in said gasket around corners of said member.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,033,436 McCormick Mar. l0, 1936 2,096,008 Schemmel Oct. 19, 1937 2,220,695 White Nov. 5, 1940 2,492,566 Geyer Dec. 27, 1949 2,607,966 Beck Aug. 26, 1952 

